GeekDad had the chance to chat with a number of awesome Star Wars–related celebrities at the recent Star Wars Celebration VI. We asked each of them the same “Five Force-Full Questions” about growing up as fans and sharing the saga with the next generation, and we’ll share their answers here.

Voice actor extraordinaire Dee Bradley Baker has played parts in a crazy number of incredible projects, and much of his work (Star Wars: The Clone Wars; Phineas and Ferb; Gears of War and Halo, just to name a few) is well-known to geek fans of all ages. He’s a lifelong Star Wars fan and a geeky dad himself.

Booth: What’s your favorite Star Wars movie and why?

Baker: I have to give a two part answer to that. I really enjoy all of them, but first and foremost, it has to be Episode IV because of what that meant to me, and what that did for my mind. When it came out in ’77 it was just so exciting and so thrilling to me. I’d been tracking science fiction movies and books since I was younger, since I read Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth in fourth grade. I had seen every science fiction movie I could: Planet of the Apes I thought was the coolest movie, and Star Trek, I thought was the coolest TV show. And Logan’s Run came out right before Star Wars, as I remember, and at the time that was the big budget sci fi with all these cutting edge effects, and Farrah Fawcett almost naked, and I thought that was really cool. And then, out comes Star Wars, and it was like this thing coming, like this hurricane that’s coming: They put out the book, and then there was the Time magazine that came out with the X-wings on the cover, and I’m looking at that like, “This is the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen and I haven’t seen it yet!” I went and saw it at least a few times that summer when it came out, and the feeling of that lasts a lifetime. Continue Reading “5 Force-Full Questions: Dee Bradley Baker at Star Wars Celebration VI” »

There are some voice actors who are very good, but stick with certain character types because that’s their specialty. Then there are those voice actors who stray outside their comfort zone from time to time, but never that far. And then there are those that show a versatility that rivals that of all-time greats like Mel Blanc, and it’s in this category that Dee Bradley Baker falls. Baker does the voice of Perry the Platypus on Phineas and Ferb, and also the voices of all the clone troopers in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and also tons of videogame voices including Ra’s al Ghul in Arkham City, and also so many more wide-ranging roles I couldn’t possibly list them all here.

And this coming Sunday, he’s lending his considerable talents to Disney XD’s Ultimate Spider-Man, portraying the voice of classic Spidey villain Sandman. The episode, titled “Snow Day,” will air in the Marvel Universe block on Disney XD at 11:00am ET/PT. Here’s a clip from it, in which Sandman seems… well, not quite a man, yet. Take a look:

EDIT: I’m now informed that the character in this clip is “Sandy,” the young version of Sandman, who is voiced by a different actor. Sorry about that.

The episode description says that Spidey and his friends are taking a vacation to a tropical island — in full costume, of course, like you do — and Sandman tries to keep them there forever. I guess we’ll have to tune in on Sunday to see what happens — remember: Disney XD at 11:00am ET/PT.

Baker’s name is not one that springs to mind immediately as a famous celebrity, but you’ve probably heard his work many, many times over the years, watching cartoons with your kids (or, being a good geek, on your own). He is a prolific voice artist, with credits spanning animated series from Star Wars: The Clone Wars to The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. He’s also done his fair share of voice work on videogames, including Gears of War, the Halo series, Tony Hawk, Spider-Man and more. He should be especially lauded for voicing GeekDad favorite Perry the Platypus on Phineas and Ferb, and Captain Rex (and every other clone) on Clone Wars. We at GeekDad have had the pleasure of interviewing him, hosting panels upon which he sat, and even finding his lost driver’s license (a very strange, coincidental story). He is a geek, a dad, a friend to this blog and an outstanding contributor to geek culture, and so it is only fitting that we name him an Honorary GeekDad as well (only the 2nd person to receive this honor – the 1st is Wil Wheaton). Happy Birthday, sir!

Fans of Disney’s Phineas and Ferb in New York City’s Times Square Monday morning were treated to a brilliantly fun kickoff to the cross-country tour of Perry the Platy-bus. The event included singing, dancing, free t-shirts, and other fun activities. To top that off, four members of the show’s cast and crew were in attendance: Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, the show’s creators and the voices, respectively, of Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Major Monogram; Dee Bradley Baker, the voice of Perry the Platypus; and Alyson Stoner, the voice of Isabella.

Perry the Platy-bus, which is of course based on the pet/secret agent Perry the Platypus from the show, is making its way from New York to San Diego, where it will arrive at Comic-Con next week to showcase the upcoming TV movie Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension. As I’ve mentioned before, the official press release describes the tour thusly:

During “Perry the Platy-bus On Tour,” fans are invited to marvel at nearly 4,000 pounds of Perry (complete with a bill, tail and googly eyes), come aboard, play the exciting new Unity 3D video game, “The Movie Game: The Dimension of Doooom!” and video console games, sing Perry-oke and more.

There hasn’t been an official schedule for the tour posted, but you can follow its progress online — when last I checked it was heading for Cleveland.

Sadly, I will probably not be able to catch the Platy-bus during its tour, but I will certainly report on it from Comic-Con. In the meantime, you can read the excellent coverage of the Times Square event on the Stitch Kingdom blog and watch some video from the event below.

As everyone hasbeen saying, Season 3 the The Clone Wars promises to be darker than its predecessors. There’s an inevitability about this, as the fact that we know about Order 66 and about Anakin’s transformation into Darth Vader has to color our reactions to the characters in this series.

This week, it all gets started. Friday’s premiere is an hour, with two episodes focusing on the clone troopers and their homeworld of Kamino. Hearkening back to “Rookies,” the two new episodes showcase the way the clones balance individual personalities with the realities of being . . . well, clones.

In “Clone Cadets,” five headstrong cadets — Hevy, Cutup, Droidbait, Fives and Echo — struggle to complete their training on the ocean planet of Kamino. Unable to work together as a team, they must learn to embrace their future as soldiers before they are drummed out of the academy.

“It’s a band-of-brothers story that takes you back before most of the episodes we’ve seen so far; it’s one of the earliest episodes – chronologically – in the series,” says Dee Bradley Baker, voice of the clones. “We’re going to see how the ‘shinies’ [new recruits featured in the first season episode, ‘Rookies’] learn to work together. Starting off, they’re not a team at all. They’re just everymen; they’re human. And now they’ve got to pull it together. There’s something really cool about how the show brings out the heroism from characters like that — not just the superpowered ones.”

Baker’s name is not one that springs to mind immediately, but you’ve probably heard his work many, many times over the years, watching cartoons with your kids (or, being a good geek, on your own). He is a prolific voice artist, with credits spanning animated series from Star Wars: The Clone Wars to The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. He’s also done his fair share of voice work on videogames, including Gears of War, the Halo series, Tony Hawk, Spider-Man and more. He should be especially lauded for voicing GeekDad favorite Perry the Platypus on Phineas and Ferb, and Captain Rex (and every other clone) on Clone Wars. Happy Birthday, sir!

By voice alone, the actor leaves Fletch and his list of aliases in the dust, and his credits are stacked with geek power: From roles in the Halo and Gears of War franchises to regular parts in animated standouts like Batman: The Brave and the Bold to GeekDad favorite Perry the Platypus on Phineas and Ferb.

Baker’s also the voice of Captain Rex and every other clone trooper on Cartoon Network’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which is how he wound up at Star Wars Celebration V this month in Orlando – though you get the sense that as someone who meticulously re-marked his Star Wars soundtrack as a kid to match the movie sequences, Baker probably would have been here anyway.

In an enthusiastic interview at the convention, the father of two talked about his career, raising his kids and being a geek (and >ahem!< a GeekDad fan!) as well as teasing some neat insights into the next season of Clone Wars and Nickelodeon’s upcoming cartoon spinoff of its animated Avatar: The Last Airbender series.

Baker’s name is not one that springs to mind immediately, but you’ve probably heard his work many, many times over the years, watching cartoons with your kids (or, being a good geek, on your own). He is a prolific voice artist, with credits spanning animated series from Star Wars: The Clone Wars to The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. He’s also done his fair share of voice work on videogames, including Gears of War, the Halo series, Tony Hawk, Spider-Man and more. He should be especially lauded for voicing GeekDad favorite Perry the Platypus on Phineas and Ferb, and Captain Rex (and every other clone) on Clone Wars. Happy Birthday, sir!